On a Thursday afternoon, just after the lunch rush, a pack of motorcycles pulled into a narrow alleyway in a Metro Manila city. The riders parked their bikes in front of a makeshift rest area. The space resembled a typical Pinoy “tambayan.” Equipped with a wall fan, and a water and a charging station, it’s enough for the weary riders to rest and recharge before the “merienda” and dinner orders trickle in.

A former security guard, a factory worker, and a barangay staffer were all brought here together by an app. Every day, they crisscross the bustling city, wait at their designated spots in restaurants and cafes, and bring food to customers right at their doorstep. 

The security guard, Rico (not his real name), joined GrabFood in 2019. The platform gave him a way out of his rigid and grueling job as a bank security guard. (GrabFood is one of the more popular food delivery services in the Philippines. It’s one of the services offered by the superapp Grab).

Melinda (also not her real name) joined the platform because it gave her the flexibility she needed as a mother of two. It promised better pay too.

Another rider, Lara, said she was doing okay with her previous job in a barangay, but she got enticed when Grab came in. The idea of not having a boss was undeniably appealing to her.

Having no boss, the freedom to choose their own working hours, and the promise of a higher income have become a major draw for Rico, Melinda, Lara, and many more Filipinos to join the growing gig economy.

The term “gig” used to refer to a band’s performance typically scheduled after work hours or on a weekend. Now it has expanded to a wide variety of tasks, often done through digital platforms 24/7. Gig work is driven by a confluence of several factors:

• Customers — those who can afford — increasingly want convenience and services on-demand.
• Workers, meanwhile, are seeking alternatives from the traditional 9-to-5 job. 
• Companies, for their part, aim to cut costs. 

Digital platforms now come in to bridge all these needs. They capitalize on this trend by connecting merchants like restaurants and cafes to us, the customers, and in between are the so-called gig workers.

In the gig economy, workers take on task-oriented and time-bound service jobs without signing a long-term contract. This allows workers to choose when and where to work, making it an ideal side hustle for those with regular jobs.

From October 2023 to June 2024, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) interviewed dozens of workers for this report. The benefits are indeed undeniable for riders and drivers who treat this kind of work as a sideline to earn extra income in their spare time. But for many Filipinos, gig work is not simply a “raket” — it has become their main source of income.

This is a big deal, especially when unemployment and underemployment persist. But because tech-driven services have far outpaced existing rules and regulations, workers are often disadvantaged. 

Food-delivery and ride-hailing workers in the Philippines, whose daily routine is dictated by an algorithm, struggle with uncertain pay, indebtedness, and the physical toll of chasing incentives.

The risks of gamification

Lara, the former barangay worker, earned more than P1,500 the day before she was interviewed by PCIJ. For the 22 deliveries she made that day, she earned P1,372, plus P200 in incentives for making a certain number of trips, and a P20 tip, for a total of P1,592.

The minimum daily wage in Metro Manila was P610 at the time. At first, it would seem that Lara earns a lot, but after all expenses – gas, food, maintenance, etc. – her take-home pay could be lower.

In cases where they do earn more than the minimum wage, the riders complain about the gruelling 12-15 hours they had to hurdle. 

For customers, it might seem as simple as thinking about what we want for lunch, opening the app, searching for a restaurant, choosing from the menu, and, in a few minutes, a rider will be assigned to get your food for you. But there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than we realize.

At the heart of these apps are algorithms that suggest merchants to customers, assign riders and drivers to passengers, and compute fares and incentives. This innovation makes things efficient and convenient for everybody. But it’s also intended to make money.

Our research shows that platforms like GrabCar, GrabFood, MoveIT, Joyride, and Angkas implement various incentive schemes designed to encourage workers to complete more orders and bookings every day. These incentives are offered on top of their standard pay, functioning as “bonuses” awarded to workers who meet specific delivery or ride targets — much like a game.

And because companies can restructure or reduce fares or, for example, more recently, deduct the senior citizen and person with disability discounts from the workers’ pay, many workers really go for the app’s incentive program.

The implications are potentially serious. It could pose health risks and occupational danger to the workers and, by extension, customers.

These incentive programs may also discourage workers from “multi-homing” or the practice of working on different platforms, which further limits their flexibility and earning potential.

Out-of-town drivers

Arnold (not his real name) spent two decades as an overseas Filipino worker. Now, he drives a GrabCar. The car is owned by his sibling to whom he remits a P1,000 “boundary” (a quota fee) daily. 

Arnold is from Batangas, a province south of Manila. To save on costs and complete as many trips as he can, he sleeps in his car and goes home to the province only during Wednesdays, his coding day. There are others like him who by now already know most of Metro Manila by heart and the places where they can park their car and not get towed, take a bath, and rest.

Arnold says he is looking for a place to rent. The problem however is finding parking space too.

“It’s hard because you’re sleeping so soundly, and then, you can’t just leave your vehicle anywhere, where it’s not safe. That way, you can’t sleep as well, not like here, where even if it’s here, you can sleep on the street.,” he said in Filipino.

Because he practically lives in his car, he gets to drive whenever he can. Admittedly, sleep is far from comfortable.

Arnold is able to reach his target income, including the P1,000 boundary a day. Not all drivers own their vehicle. Many drive other people’s cars and remit a boundary at the end of the day. Another setup is called “boundary-hulog” where a driver pays both boundary and “hulog” for the car so they get to own it after a few years.

Silver, gold, platinum

With GrabCar, drivers can reach higher tiers — silver, gold, or platinum — based on the number of rides they complete. The higher the tier, the lower the “kaltas” or the commission Grab deducts from their earnings, with the standard rate being 21%.

A driver needs to make 450 rides a month to reach platinum, the highest tier; 400 for gold, and 250 for silver.

Food delivery has a similar incentive scheme. In rider parlance, they call it “butas.” On their phone screens, there are round icons that can be unlocked by earning gems. One ride earns 10 gems. The more rides they take, the more gems, the higher the incentive. 

The riders interviewed said that in 2019 they could easily earn P800 in incentives a day. But Grab has changed this scheme several times. The same number of rides would earn them a lower amount now.

Riders also try to reach a higher tier to earn other rewards, such as insurance, which at the time of the interview, was provided to those who have gold and platinum status. Similar to GrabCar, workers first enter as members, and can then move up to the silver, gold, and platinum tier. To reach platinum, a rider must make 480 rides in one month.

“What happens is that you won’t sleep anymore because in one month, you’d need 480 rides,” Rico said.

“Personally, I’ve experienced running several times; sometimes, I even dozed off and ended up on the gutter,” Carlos said. 

“Sometimes, while driving, I just keep my eyes closed,” Lara said.

“We push ourselves to keep working just to hit the incentive targets — the gems,” Rico said.

Now, the riders said this number is hard to reach, especially if they serve an area outside the most busy cities like Makati, for instance.

Grab: ‘Safety first’; Joyride, Angkas: mum on issue

PCIJ reached out to Grab about the incentive program. We asked how the company ensures that the app’s algorithm does not cause harm or encourage behavior that might pose risks to its workers. 

Grab said it has always prioritized passenger safety. 

“We have implemented several measures to safeguard our drivers and passengers. Our platform includes features that monitor driver activity and prompt breaks if prolonged driving hours are detected. Safety features are part of our commitment to preventing fatigue-related incidents,” Grab said in writing. 

Grab also said that it “continuously assesses and evaluates the safety records of our drivers to ensure that only drivers with excellent driver safety records are allowed to service commuters.”

PCIJ also asked the company if it has tested these kinds of incentive programs and their potential impact on workers before implementing them. For instance, does the company track the number of hours workers spend on the road? 

According to the response: “Our incentive programs are designed with the well-being of our driver-partners in mind. We regularly review and refine these programs to ensure they promote safe and sustainable driving practices. While specific operational details are confidential, we assure you that our policies are aligned with the industry’s best practices and regulatory requirements.”

Angkas had initially entertained our request for an interview but did not grant one eventually.

Joyride has not responded to a similar request as of press time.

Fairwork Philippines findings

A 2023 study published by Fairwork Philippines, a project led by the De La Salle University with the Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines Diliman, and partners from the University of Oxford, reflects PCIJ’s findings. 

The report evaluated Angkas, Borzo, GrabCar, Grab Food and Grab Express, FoodPanda, Joyride, Joyride Car, Lalamove, Maxim, and TokTok, and how these platforms meet the five principles of “fair work.” 

The five principles of “fair work,” composed of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management and fair representation, were developed through an extensive literature review of published research on job quality and meetings at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Labor Organization and in-country meetings with local stakeholders.

The table below shows what each principle corresponds to. A platform is awarded a first point if evidence suggests that it does meet the condition. The second point under each principle can only be awarded if the first point for that principle has been awarded. If there is no verifiable evidence available that meets a given threshold, the platform is not awarded that point. A platform can score a maximum of 10 points. 

Only GrabCar, Grab Express, GrabFood, Lalamove, and Angkas managed to earn points, but even these are too few for the workers in these companies to be considered as receiving fair work. 

While these platforms offer workers the opportunity to secure their families’ needs in the context of poor employment alternatives in the country, they face “multiple occupational health and safety risks” daily on the road, along with shortcomings in terms of basic safety protections from accidents, illnesses and death, the report found.

Similar to our research, Fairwork Philippines found that “(g)ig workers tend to stretch their working hours to secure more gigs to earn what they need to remain afloat amid fluctuant rates, opaque pay structures, rigid ratings, and increasing competition.” 

In addition, the report emphasized that workers are compelled to do this not only as a “free” choice, but also due to unfair or predatory pay and incentive structures. “The lack of measures to protect workers’ safety heightens their vulnerability, and the absence of safety nets implies that any sudden inability to work redounds to livelihood insecurity,” the report said.

Inherent ‘asymmetries’

According to a Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) research, the problems encountered by the riders and drivers are caused by “asymmetries” inherent in many apps or platforms.

These asymmetries give rise to “structural inequalities,” where companies — like Grab, Angkas, Joyride, and FoodPanda — benefit the most. They are followed by merchants — like our go-to restaurants and cafes — and then, us, the customers.

At the bottom would be workers, who also grapple with having the least information and understanding about how things work on the platform such as how fares are calculated, why they are getting pick-ups that are too far, how to contest low ratings, resolve disputes, address account suspension and termination.

For instance, Grab driver Rolly (not his real name) got temporarily blocked from the app because he supposedly received bad ratings from a customer. A passenger complained that he still collected money from him even when he was paying through GrabPay.

“What I did was I complained to Grab. 'Sir, I didn’t do anything like that, I didn’t charge them anything.' It was a cash transaction… I know my responsibilities as a driver. Let’s be fair here. Why is it that they’re the only ones who can complain? What about us?” said Rolly in Filipino.

Rolly said a Grab representative responded to him in English, promising to look into the matter. The staffer said they would relay the information to the customer and wait for his feedback. 

“Are we just going to wait for their feedback? What if they don’t give any feedback? Then nothing happens. Or if they do, what will they say? 'No, we paid. We were still charged. We were on cashless.' So, who will they side with? Not us drivers, it’s still them. That’s true, Ma’am. That’s really happened to me twice,” Rolly said.

“That’s how Grab operates. They already have a decision right away. As long as the passenger complains, they immediately side with them against the driver. They don’t hav equality. Because, to be honest, their platform is really designed to boost the number of passengers. That’s how it works.,” he added.

Fairwork: Grab fares better than others, but still not enough

GrabCar, the two-wheel car service, actually has a better record of managing these kinds of disputes, according to the 2023 report of Fairwork Philippines. In the research, GrabCar and Grab Express each scored a point for having communication channels that were accessible to workers such as support chat and Safety Center within the app. 

On their website, there’s a step-by-step guide on how to resolve a variety of concerns with instructions written in Filipino. Should the worker still need help, a form is available for further assistance. 

The researchers learned from workers that the rest of the platforms are unresponsive to such concerns. If platforms do respond, they reply slowly and inconsistently, rendering any support unreliable for them.

The report also found that support communication is typically fast for concerns related to customer issues while response takes days or is hard to get for workers’ issues like unfair deactivations, penalties, and others.

The app making executive decisions like this is a common pain point among drivers.

Another frequent concern is the app’s suggested route. This is used to compute and show fares upfront. But it doesn’t always reflect the actual route taken by the driver. 

For example, when the app suggests a route that goes through roads with tolls, customers can direct drivers to pass elsewhere to save on toll fees. This means the calculated fare, which will be paid by the customer, will not match the actual distance and duration of the ride.

One driver suggested that perhaps the app could give customers route options with or without toll. 

Consumers also need to be better informed about how the app works.

Platforms bear risks, too

To be sure, the PIDS study also highlighted that platforms bear a lot of risks too and that not all startups are successful. 

“Upfront investments are made in building the platform and losses are incurred in scaling up before network effects are achieved,” the researchers wrote.

For instance, Grab’s local subsidiary, MyTaxi PH, has incurred recurring losses in the past, resulting in a capital deficiency of P8.2 billion in 2021 and P7.7 billion in 2020. 

Its 2021 financial statement obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission noted that “these conditions, among others, indicate a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern and therefore, that it may be unable to realize its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business.”

These losses, according to the SEC record, were incurred while the company was in the stage of aggressively growing its business through “market penetration and building brand loyalty from drivers and passengers.”

“Grab Holdings Inc., the mother company, provides financial and operational support to MyTaxi PH and is committed to continue providing such support to enable the company to continue as a going concern,” the auditors noted. – Rappler.com

This article was republished with permission from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network.